LONDON — Form doesn’t lie. For Dylan Armstrong, a season of average performances ended with another one on the day he waited four years for, at the London Olympics.

The 31-year-old giant from Kamloops, who finished a silly centimetre out of the medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, slipped a rung Friday night when he was more or less just a face in the crowd among the final eight shot putters.

While Poland’s Tomasz Majewski successfully defended his Olympic title with a best put of 21.89 metres, edging last year’s world champ David Storl of Germany by three centimetres, no one else was really a factor on the night, including bronze medallist Reese Hoffa of the U.S., distantly third at 21.23.

Armstrong, with a career-best toss of 22.21, managed 20.93 on his second attempt and nothing close to it in his last four.

“I guess I’m happy with fifth, but it would have been nice to get on the podium,” Armstrong said, with nary a trace of sadness. “It’s just a strong field, super-strong. It’s how it is. You can be in the best shape of your life, but if you don’t snap one off your finger correctly, they can go a metre less. Every attempt, you think ‘I’ve got one in me.’ But it’s just how the chips fall.”

It was a remarkably upbeat Armstrong who met reporters in the mixed zone, but Canadian head coach Alex Gardiner is pretty sure the disappointment will come out at some point.

“Dylan’s a pretty easygoing guy, and I don’t know how the subconscious works, but he had a lot of hopes riding on him. Sponsors, family, the whole city of Kamloops, and it’s got to do something to you if you think you’re carrying that kind of responsibility,” said Gardiner.

“Maybe he needed to think more about throwing for himself. He’s not that kind of a guy, not a selfish man at all. But I’m sure he’ll have some reflection on it. We hope he’s got a few more years in him. He won’t be happy with this. He managed himself well, but he’ll have some time where he’ll be a little more emotional than what he displayed here, I’m sure.”

It was an odd competition, in which only the two leaders were sharp.

“It is incredibly hard. There is probably nothing harder in the world than to win a medal in the Olympic Games,” said Hoffa. “I think it’s a little easier at the world championships, but to get a medal at this higher level ... that’s why I tip my hat to Tomasz and David — they figured out the puzzle.”

Armstrong never did. An elbow injury in February (he has a floating bone chip that will need surgery in September) cost him six weeks of training, and though he threw 21.51 at nationals this summer, his peaks were fewer, and smaller.

“I thought it was flat. It wasn’t inspired. We certainly didn’t see what we saw at nationals or worlds. I didn’t see the pop in the circle,” Gardiner said.

“He was really nervous this morning [in barely qualifying for the final], and I don’t think he shook all of that off. He’s so consistent, and if you looked at last year’s form, he must have thrown over 21.40 ... I don’t know, 20 times-plus. So there was definitely something missing.

“You would normally think the 21.51 he threw at nationals would have been repeatable. But there’s the other element: other than the first two guys who threw pretty strongly, everybody else was way, way below what they normally do.”

Armstrong has “seven or eight” more competitions in Europe this year before his season is done, and he is willing to look ahead as far as next summer’s world championships in Moscow, but as for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 ...

“It’s tough. Fourth in Beijing, fifth here ... so I’ll have to think about Rio. I don’t know, I’ll be 35 years old when that comes around.”

Gardiner said that might be a big ask.

“I mean, we know physiologically in males, at a certain age the testosterone drops off pretty quickly, and it’s a power sport,” said the coach. “But he’ll want some redemption. It’s a long way to Rio but I know he wants to get ready for Moscow.”

For Armstrong, there are all kinds of factors to consider, or rethink.

“It’s interesting, at least from my point of view: he travelled so much last year, did just about every Diamond League meet, threw a ton, was on the plane all the time, and was still able to come up big at the worlds [where he won a silver medal],” Gardiner said. “And this year, he cut everything back, he staged in Europe, he didn’t come in at the last minute like he typically does. But on the day ....”

On the day, he was one place lower than four years ago.

Harder to take, or easier?

“I don’t know,” Armstrong said, with a wistful smile. “I mean, fourth, fifth at the Olympics. I can deal with that. At least it wasn’t by a centimetre this time, if you want to look at it that way.”

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